Matthew Guminski is a Boston native and a graduate of Boston University with a B.F.A. in Lighting Design. At school Matt worked non-stop throughout his four years to perfect his art and become proficient in various types of theatrical technology. Matt is fascinated with creating theatrical magic in all different sizes and styles of performance spaces as well as skillfully incorporating many artistic styles. Creating something that can support the environment of the play and evoke the audience’s deepest emotions at the same time is a truly amazing and rewarding experience. His designs reflect collaboration with directors and other designers. If lighting isn’t supporting the story to be told, he feels like he isn’t doing his job. His goal is to approach the lighting design in a way that aims to serve the theatrical experience as a whole.
Matt is a five time recipient of the New Hampshire Theatre Award for best Professional Lighting Design. PROOF (2006), THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2007), TWO ROOMS (2008), THE GLASS MENAGERIE (2009) and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (2010) – all presented at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in Laconia NH.
“Lighting designer Matt Guminski outdoes himself with this show. Guminski has a history of innovation where the Winnipesaukee Playhouse’s shows are concerned- his light plots for them have garnered more wins at the NH Theatre Awards than any other lighting designer.
With BLITHE SPIRIT, Guminski steps up the entire concept of theatrical lighting a notch and brings a fascinating level of design to the Winni P that is rarely seen outside of the big production houses. It’s lighting that that raises the bar for how lighting not only should be done, but must be done, if a company wishes to stay ahead of the creative curve. ”
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on Blithe Spirit)
“Lighting designer Matt Guminski starts the play off with a grainy image of a large mass of ice, then segues into a utilitarian and rather harsh light plot that compliments the action and the set. Of course, Guminski doesn’t stop there; there’s far more as the play progresses, and Guminski sets it all up in a sly, understated manner, setting a perfect tone for what’s happening on stage from opening to final blackout.”
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on Scotland Road)
“Timber Lake’s new artistic director, James Beaudry, is right on target. He has kept the open-fourth-wall, direct-to-the-audience staging; he has stayed close to the fantastic original choreography style of Bob Fosse, and he has the dancers to do it. The general ensemble is young, stylish, elegant and downright classy. Designers Amanda Sweger (sets), Matthew Guminski (lights) and Tate Ellis (costumes) have created an overall look that reeks of jazz age, Prohibition-era Chicago. Visually, the production is perfect.”
Bill Beard, The Rock River Times (on Chicago)
“Integral to the overall production and another Fosse-esque quality, is the magic use of lighting in this TLP production. Lighting designer Matthew Guminski does brilliantly textured scenes that compliment set designer Amanda Sweger’s sleek surroundings.”
Sue Langenberg, pacc-news.com (on Chicago)
“Matt Guminski sketches out an elegantly understated light plot, one that is unobtrusive but not lugubrious. Guminski catches on to a deliberate tempo in how and when key moments of OUR TOWN need to be illuminated, and remains faithful to it throughout the course of the play.
There’s no incandescent riot of color or aggressive swirling of texture holding sway over this production; it’s clean and restrained, and does everything it should without being showy or distracting. There are times when the more spartan atmosphere of light and shadow are called for to bring a truly significant luminosity to what’s playing out on stage; Guminski isn’t afraid to exercise a modicum of restraint when it’s called for, and in this, he serves the play well.”
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on Our Town)
“Scenic (David Towlun) and Lighting (Matt Guminski) design are radiant, vivid and captivating. From the Northern Lights to the bang of a screen door, love’s promise and disregard don’t “almost,” touch you. They grab you.”
Tamara Le, SeacoastOnline.com (on Almost, Maine)
“Fitting perfectly into Seacoast Rep’s intimate three-quarter thrust theater, David Towlun’s set is an inspired sacred space he creates with shiny metallic framework that combines with a rock-star lighting design by Matt Guminski.”
Matthew Small, Talkinbroadway.com (on Altar Boyz)
“David Towlun’s set design is stunning; a large-scale reproduction of an 1870s world map dominates the stage, rendered in vintage colors and lettering, hearkening back to the magnificently detailed map room murals of the world’s great museums. This acts as the backdrop for the many scenes that unfold, denoting any number of locations, always enhancing and never detracting.
The floor is outfitted with a large compass-like design indicating all points of the globe, with a surprise built into it. A working clock engineered by the talented Billy Hunt stands at the apex of the set, marking different intervals throughout the 80-day expedition.
Matt Guminski then applies a polish to all with a delightfully alive light plot, one that swirls and rotates with panoply of vivid colors and textures, completing the arc of visual experience. “
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on 80 Days)
“David Towlun’s set is an excellent representation of a shabby kitchen that was 20 years out of date by the time that CRIMES takes place, which blends into an equally drab dining area; everything is stained, scratched, splintered, faded and just about worn out. It echoes precisely the hand-me-down existence the three Magrath girls have been forced to live since the suicide of their mother some twenty years prior.
Matt Guminski tackles the tough job of lighting this drabness with his usual artistic assurance; the lighting is introspective and moody, casting pools of shadow here and there rather than lighting generally, accentuating the age and paucity of the setting. Contrasting brightness is filtered through the kitchen door, reflecting a cheery Mississippi autumn day or a luminescent moonlit night.”
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on Crimes)
“David Towlun’s set design and Matthew Guminski’s light plot fuse together seamlessly to provide a visual marvel. It’s a unit set depicting a cluttered New York flat, its walls crammed with posters the great motion pictures from the 30s through the 50s, tons of kitsch- furniture, books, and ephemera scattered throughout, yet roomy enough for the actors to range. The flat becomes the setting not just for Allan’s real-life dramas, but those he creates in his nerdy, Walter Mitty-like imagination; lights change in a snap from cheery daylight to noirish purple-black, or introspective indigo, or succulent ruby red, depending on what’s playing out in either in Allan’s fecund dream world or his less-than-dreamy reality. It’s a beautiful interplay of textures, moods, light and shadow, and it’s just brilliant.”
Michael Curtiss, NHtheatre.org (on Sam)
“”Doubt, A Parable” is further proof that Foothills Theatre not only delivers the goods in musicals but in award winning dramas, too. The incredible unit set by Janice Howland consists of principal’s office on stage right with a free standing door, stained glass window behind the desk of Madonna and child, a garden set with a wrought iron gate and bench on stage left while down stage left is the pulpit with a large crucifix behind it. The awesome lighting is by Matt Guminski who has a window type lighting effect in the principal’s office, while seasonal lighting on the outdoor scene and special spots on the Madonna and the Crucifix at dramatic moments in the show, heightening the tension..”
Tony Annicone, TheaterMirror.com (on Doubt)
“Wonderfully aided by set designer Barabra Craig’s Chicken Ranch conception, Fred Frabotta’s pinpoint music, Kurt Hulgren’s saucy costumes and Matt Guminski’s faultless lighting, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” proves just how good Foothills can be, even under the most dire circumstances..”
Paul Kolas, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (on Whorehouse)
“The performance was an optimum fusion of dramatic, visual and aural design, from director Jason Southerland’s provocative interpretation of Williams’ text, to Janie Howland’s inventively fractured set design, to Matt Guminski’s striking, often disquieting lighting, to Nathan Leigh’s hallucinatory use of sound.
These elements are so sublimely integrated they enhance the themes of the play in unexpected ways. The shabby Kowalski household and surrounding neighborhood is constructed at odd, disorienting angles; whispering voices and discordant jazz waft through the sound system; light is conjured up in surreal, Kafkaesque fashion. All this sensory disorientation is a perfect reflection of Blanche’s disheveled, broken spirit and dream state mindset.”
Paul Kolas, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (on Streetcar)
“Also a word of praise for the phenomenal lighting job by Matt Guminski who makes you feel like you are at a Broadway performance.”
Tony Annicone, TheaterMirror.com (on Bat Boy)
“It is Hardy’s design and sound teams that set the mood of this play. “Hedda Gabler” could not succeed as beautifully as it does without Chez Cherry’s elegant set lit by Matthew Guminski’s lighting plot. The combination of light and shadow constantly illuminates and informs the action onstage.”
Judy Harrison , Bangor Daily News (on Hedda Gabler)
“Matthew Guminski’s lights add iridescent richness and texture to both the set and the action; sometimes broad swaths of color, at other times spare and wispy, but always keenly tuned into the mood and the moment.”
Michael J. Curtiss , NHTheatre.org (on Two Rooms)
“Michael Joseph as musical director brings out the best in his vocalists and orchestra as does Sally Ashton Forrest does with her high energy dancers in her inventive choreography. Throw in wonderful, colorful costumes by Jen Spagnone and topnotch, intricate lighting design by Matt Guminski and you have the perfect ingredients of comic and poignant moments to create a sensational musical treat for their very appreciative audience.”
Tony Annicone, TheaterMirror.com (on The Full Monty)
“Set designer Jenna McFarland-Lord supplies us with pictures of events as they happened on screens mounted on each side of the stage, including the real Norm Petty in the recording studio. Director Jason Sotherland, lighting designer Matthew Guminski, sound designer Ed Thurber, and costume designer Nicole Watson all seem to be working with a remarkable synthesis, re-creating a visual and audio texture so authentic it brings the time frame emotionally alive.”
Paul Kolas, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (on Buddy)
“The set by Nathan Fogg is topnotch, as is the professional style lighting by Matt Guminski where you feel you are at a concert, in a TV studio, in a night club and in a Broadway style theater.”
Tony Annicone, TheaterMirror.com (on Dreamgirls)
“Matthew Guminski’s striking high definition lighting is edgy, in your face, and captivating.”
Paul Kolas, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (on Evita)
“… there’s an inner darkness that rises from Matt Guminski’s lighting in deep shades of heavy color.”
Alicia Anstead, Bangor Daily News (on Uncle Vanya)
“The intimacy of the Winnipesaukee Playhouse serves as the ideal backdrop to this play, and the imaginative set and lighting wrap the whole production up in a lovely package of smart writing, witty jabs, joy and sorrow and Cole Porter music bringing it all home.”
Jane Bergeron, The Weirs Times (on Sylvia)